White sales, the first days of a New Year's-resolution diet, an entry in a magazine subscription sweepstakes: January is a month of small hopes. And of petty disappointments: you know that the queen-size percales are going to be sold out, that you are going to succumb to a chocolate fit and that Ed McMahon is not going to appear on the doorstep and hand you a million-dollar check.

In seasons past, Hollywood has not been as helpful as it might have been in lifting dulled spirits. Having hyped themselves...